Saturday, June 17, 2017

We are thrilled to welcome back Helena Stone to Sinfully as she celebrates the release of Renewal, the third book in the Dublin Virtues series which is due out on the 20th June. Go check it out and don’t forget to enter the giveaway!

What’s in a Name?

Originally Renewal was going to be called ‘Redemption’. The decision to change the title was based on publishing considerations rather than anything story related. When I was first asked to come up with something other than ‘Redemption’, I was dismayed. What else was I going to call a book in which I took a character, Shane, who’d been an out and out bastard in Patience, the first book in the trilogy, and tried to show another side to him?

In retrospect I am delighted that I was forced to rethink the title. Because I’m not sure this story is about someone paying for, or fixing, past mistakes. While Shane does get his opportunities to show that he’s no longer the selfish so-and-so he was in the earlier book, this book is about him being forced to grow up. It is a story about someone who’s never really had any concerns, and lived his life exactly as he wanted to, until the moment when real life hits him in the face and demands that he behaves like a responsible adult rather than a spoiled child.

In Renewal I show a side to Shane we haven’t seen before. Shane doesn’t make excuses for his earlier behaviour. In fact, he’s only too aware how much of a bastard he’s been and that he deserves any and all ill feelings Troy and Xander may have toward him.

A deafening silence settled on the table when Chris put his phone away. Shane scrambled for something to say, but couldn’t come up with anything except told you so and that would not only be childish but also make him more uncomfortable than he already was.

“Well,” Chris said, “you clearly weren’t joking when you told me Troy would want to tell me about you. From what he said and the way he said it I got the impression he doesn’t like you very much.”

Pent-up nerves got the better of Shane and a bitter snort escaped him. “He hates me. And if he doesn’t, he should.”

Shane was suddenly fed up with the whole situation. The thought that maybe he and Chris might be friends had been nice but he’d known it wasn’t going to last. He might as well put an end to it all now. “Trust me, after he’s told you the whole sorry tale you won’t want to be around me anymore and I won’t be able to blame you for that. I’ll have a word with Barry when we get back and have him assign someone else to work with you next week.”

I guess I didn’t want to redeem him so much as allow him to grow, move forward, and become a better man in the process. Especially because, as Shane himself says later on in the story, there are no excuses for what he has done.

It remains to be seen whether or not I succeeded in delivering a new and improved Shane. I am curious, excited, as well as nervous about finding out if readers feel that Shane, by the end of Renewal, has earned his happy ending.

Renewal

(Dublin Virtues Book 3)

Helena Stone

Publisher ~ Pride Publishing

Published ~ 20th June 2017

Genre ~ Contemporary gay Romance

Synopsis

When everything changes, can renewal bring redemption?

Shane Boyle left Dublin for America, burning most of his bridges, certain his future lay in Florida. When a family crisis forces him back to the city he grew up in, he knows his life will never be the same again. With his sister close to death, his mother and five-year-old nephew Danny need him not just to be around but also to be the rock they can depend on. Torn between panic about his new responsibilities and despair at his impending loss, love and a relationship are the last thing on his mind.

Chris Anderson left Australia for Dublin ten years ago with no intention of ever going back. For reasons he can’t explain, even to himself, he hasn’t been in a relationship for almost as long as he’s been in Ireland. Now thirty-five years old, he wonders what happened to his dream of a lasting bond and a family to call his own.

When Shane and Chris hook up one night in a pub, neither knows that the next day they’ll meet again, this time as colleagues in a tattoo parlour. Chris has no idea about Shane’s dodgy past and Shane can’t figure out the mountain of a man who refuses to take no for an answer. Having to reinvent his whole life is only the start of Shane’s process of renewal. Will Chris turn out to be his savior or his downfall?

Purchase Links

Meet Helena Stone

Helena Stone can’t remember a life before words and reading. After growing up in a household where no holiday or festivity was complete without at least one new book, it’s hardly surprising she now owns more books than shelf space while her Kindle is about to explode.

The urge to write came as a surprise. The realisation that people might enjoy her words was a shock to say the least. Now that the writing bug has well and truly taken hold, Helena can no longer imagine not sharing the characters in her head and heart with the rest of the world.

Having left the hustle and bustle of Amsterdam for the peace and quiet of the Irish Country side she divides her time between reading, writing, long and often wet walks with the dog, her part-time job in a library, a grown-up daughter and her ever loving and patient husband.